In honor of the show’s 40th anniversary, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite Saturday Night Live hosts of all time. Whether they’ve hosted a whopping 16 times (Alec Baldwin) or inexplicably only hosted once (Neil Patrick Harris), they’ve kept us watching over the years. Because when SNL gets the host right, it’s a fun Saturday night.
Justin Timberlake
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Justin has hosted five times, officially placing him in the five-timers clubs of SNL hosts. He’s almost like an alternate cast member at this point. And it’s no wonder, he’s participated in some of the most memorable sketches the show has seen in the past 10 years. D*ck in a box, anyone?
Alec Baldwin
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He’s hosted the most times out of anyone in SNL history. That’s saying something. His first appearance was in 1990 and his most recent one was in 2011. We think he’s due for another.
Jon Hamm
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We love that Jon Hamm is undercover funny. If you watched him as the tortured Don Draper on Mad Men, you’d never know he had a hidden funny bone. Thank God for SNL. Sketches like “Jon Hamm’s John Ham” and his role as Sergio the sexy saxophonist were all we hoped for and more.
Andrew Garfield
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To be honest, we didn’t think Andrew Garfield could be funny. But his spot on Justin Timberlake impersonation proved us wrong.
Anna Kendrick
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This girl was a natural. Her comedic timing was spot on and she played a fantastic pop song-singing Ariel.
Neil Patrick Harris
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He literally hosts everything else (the Tonys, the Emmys, and now the Oscars), so we’re a little surprised that he’s only hosted SNL once. Hopefully when he’s done hosting every other awards show known to man, he can come back and do some more hilarious sketches.
Drew Barrymore
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Ok, we have to give it up for Drew Barrymore because she was the youngest host of SNL ever. She first hosted the show when she was 7 years old! She’s hosted it five other times since.
Tina Fey
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We always love when former cast members come back to host, because you know it'll be good. Tina Fey was no exception. Her spoof of Girls just reminded us how much we miss her SNL contributions.
Christopher Walken
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You know what SNL needs? More cowbell! Also, more Christopher Walken.
Ben Affleck
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Ben Affleck is also a five-timer, so you know he must be doing something right. His most recent appearance was in 2013, and his wife Jennifer Garner made a cameo during his monologue.
Who do YOU think are the best SNL hosts of all time? Tell us on Twitter!
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Mark Wahlberg's blockbuster Transformers: Age Of Extinction has been named among the "worst" films of the year after scoring seven nominations for the 2015 Golden Raspberry Awards. The fourth installment of Michael Bay's action franchise claimed the most nods ahead of the annual prizegiving, which celebrates the worst Hollywood films and performances.
Despite being named the highest-grossing film of 2014 with $1.1 billion earnings at the global box office, the latest Transformers movie is up for Worst Sequel, Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Combo, Worst Director for Bay, Worst Supporting Actress for Nicola Peltz, and Worst Supporting Actor for Kelsey Grammer.
Transformers is also up for Worst Picture, going up against Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas, Left Behind, The Legend of Hercules and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Saving Christmas and The Legend of Hercules trail Transformers with six nominations each. Cameron and Hercules star Kellan Lutz will face off in the Worst Actor category, along with Nicolas Cage (Left Behind), Seth MacFarlane (A Million Ways to Die in the West), and Razzie regular Adam Sandler (Blended).
Hercules' Gaia Weiss is up for the "dis-honour" of Worst Actress, against Drew Barrymore (Blended), Cameron Diaz (The Other Woman and Sex Tape), Melissa McCarthy (Tammy) and Charlize Theron (A Million Ways to Die in the West).
In addition, a new category has been added this year (14) - the Redeemer Award will be given to a superstar who has been awarded a Razzie in the past, but has since rebounded with critical success.
Among the inaugural group of nominees are Ben Affleck (Gone Girl), Jennifer Aniston (Cake), Mike Myers (Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon), Keanu Reeves (John Wick), and Kristen Stewart (Camp X-Ray).
The 2015 Golden Raspberry Awards will be handed out on 21 February (15), the night before the Academy Awards.

HBO
With the final season of True Blood hitting television screens this summer, our heroine Sookie (Anna Paquin) will be tasked with fighting a new kind of evil: zombie-like vampires. Though we may be sad to see True Blood finally bite the dust, there have been six seasons worth of fantastic villains. We’re taking the time to appreciate some of them before the true death of HBO’s vamp show.
Maryann Forrester (Michelle Forbes)
Maryann’s crimes include hosting huge orgies, creating chaos, forcing humans to do her bidding, and attempting to sacrifice a magical creature. She may not be the most evil of True Blood’s villains — she also, arguably, did have some people’s interests at heart — but let’s not forget the whole sacrifice/mind control thing.
Antonia Gavilán (Paola Turbay/Fiona Shaw)
As far as the reasoning behind villainous intentions, Antonia’s may be the easiest to understand. Though she is overcome with a need for vengeance and possesses Marnie Stonebrook’s (Fiona Shaw) body in an attempt to seek revenge, can you blame her? She was tortured by vampires; given the laundry list of evil vampires we’ve seen on True Blood it’s almost understandable.
Lorena Krasiki (Mariana Klaveno)
For most of her time on True Blood, Lorena is more of a jealous ex-girlfriend than an actual villain. That’s not to say that ex-girlfriends can’t be evil, because Lorena certainly is. However, she’s not that much worse than some other vampires on True Blood, though she does help give the species a bad name.
Macklyn Warlow (Rob Kazinsky)
Warlow — or Ben, as we first knew him — was the main antagonist of the most recent season, but he had been teased for most of the show’s lifespan. Warlow was the vampire that murdered Sookie’s parents. He also tried to force Sookie to marry him, which was as creepy as it was evil. However, as far as nefarious villains, he spent most of the season (literally) tied up which wasn’t very good for his bad guy reputation.
Rene Lenier/Drew Marshall (Michael Raymond-James)
Though Rene — or should we call him Drew — was more species-ist than outright evil, his psychopathic tendencies really don’t help his case. As the first season’s big bad, the vampire and vampire-sympathist murderer made for a great mystery and thrilling season. Plus, anyone who can kill a nice old women like Adele Stackhouse must be at least 89 percent evil.
Steve and Sarah Newlin (Michael McMillian &amp; Anna Camp)
As religious fanatics, Steve and Sarah Newlin commit some cruel atrocities against vampires in the name of their god. However, even though they may have thought what they were doing was right, it wasn’t. Their delusion makes them pretty darn evil, especially Sarah’s testing facility in the sixth season.
Franklin Mott (James Frain)
Though Franklin wasn’t around for a long time, he managed betray some of our beloved characters Tara and Jessica. To make matters worse for himself, he has no redeeming qualities and many viewers were glad to see him die.
Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare)
By far the most evil vampire on True Blood, Russell has little to no regard for human life, he is a crazed lunatic who just wants to watch the world burn, and his proper Southern accent makes him all the more menacing. Plus, he comes back from being buried under massive amounts of concrete. He’s the biggest bad True Blood has seen yet.
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Marvel Studios
Peggy Carter, the plucky heroine of Marvel's short film Agent Carter, is getting her own series. Talk of a possible Agent Carter TV show has been rumbling around ever since the character's live-action debut in Captain America: The First Avenger and her subsequent solo adventure, but things were made official today with ABC picking up the property for a series order. The past couple of days have been huge for superheroes on television - this week alone saw pickups for Gotham, The Flash, and Agent Carter by different networks - so to help you decide which comic book crusader to catch on the small screen next year, we've outlined all of the upcoming superhero television series currently hurtling their way to your television sets.
Agent CarterPremiere Date: There's no official word, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will likely be used as a "bridge" during the second season hiatus of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. That would put the premiere date around Spring/Summer 2015.What It's About: Based on the Agent Carter one shot, the series will focus on Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) as she begins her legendary career as a spy and works to form the intelligence agency, S.H.I.E.L.D.Will it Be Good? The original one shot was an incredibly fun romp, and the upcoming series already has an impressive cast forming (Atwell is confirmed to star, and Dominic Cooper will possibly reprise his role as Howard Stark). Agent Carter will also likely be able to side step the pitfalls of its sister program, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., since it doesn't have to align as slavishly to the continuity of Marvel's cinematic output. Plus, the show will be run by Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, who have proven themselves capable of delivering fun, episodic television from their work on the wonderful, yet sadly short-lived Reaper. We do have some doubts, given ABC's handling of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but Agent Carter looks to be in good shape.
The FlashPremiere Date: Fall 2014What It's About: A spin-off of the CW's wildly sucessful Arrow, The Flash will focus on Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), a costumed crimefighter who gains super-speed after being caught in a chemical explosion at S.T.A.R. labs.Will It Be Good? The CW has proven themselves to be quite adept at creating compelling superhero TV. After some early missteps, Arrow has blossomed into a fun, rollicking hour of television with the right mix of action and melodrama. Given that it's a spin-off, the series already has an established universe to take plots, the scarlet speedster should be in capable hands.
GothamPremiere Date: Fall 2014What It's About: Gotham will serve as an origin story for the entire Batman universe. The series will center on a young Det. Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) during his first couple of years on the Gotham police force, while also exploring the humble beginnings of several classic Batman characters, including Penguin, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, the Riddler and of course, a young Bruce Wayne.Will It Be Good? Creating a series centered on Batman's city sans Batman is decidedly risky, but there's a lot to like in what we've seen of the series so far. Gotham's first trailer is decidedly moody and the actual depiction of Gotham City - a dark and sprawling metropolis with a ton of secrets hidden in every alleyway - looks just about right, but all the child versions of Batman's iconic rogues gallery does give us pause. It might also suffer from the same problems that have plagued Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D's rocky first season, namely being set in a comic book universe without all the cool comic book characters. If the series can weave a compelling and original narrative with the Batman mythos, then we won't miss the caped crusader all that much.
The Netflix Series: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The DefendersPremiere Dates: Sometime in 2015, beginning with Daredevil.What It's About: Netflix is strengthening its original programming output with four original series based on Marvel comics properties. They'll focus on Daredevil, a blind crimefighter with heightened senses; Jessica Jones, a super-powered private investigator; Luke Cage, a super-powered and near-invulnerable hero for hire and Iron Fist, a martial artist endowed with mystical abilities. Finally, all four heroes will come together in The Defenders, an epic mini-series event.Will It Be Good? Much of Netflix's original programming thus far has been pretty great, so it would seem that the streaming service is dedicated to delivering quality material. Also, writer Drew Goddard will serve as showrunner on Daredevil. Goddard has quite an impressive resume, with writing credits on Cloverfield, Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, Angel, and World War Z, not to mention his work directing Cabin in the Woods. Things are looking good for Marvel and Netflix.
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Splash News/Marvel
There are times where directorial hiring feels like a good fit, but others where they feel like planetary alignment. After being considered for the position a couple of months back, Drew Goddard is in negotiations to both write and direct Sony's upcoming Amazing Spider-Man spin-off, Sinister Six. The titular group is a collective of Spider-Man's fiercest foes that team up after repeated attempts to foil the superhero by themselves prove futile. Goddard is an inspired choice for the director's chair. The filmmaker has made a career out of shaping and creating tons of memorable villains. His work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Lost has added texture and depth to those shows' bad guys, while his 2012 feature with fellow superhero helmer Joss Whedon, The Cabin in the Woods, brought a cornucopia of awful monsters to theaters. Here's a list of some of the best villains Goddard had a hand in creating.
The Cloverfield Monster (Cloverfield)A seriously strange and unnerving creation, this freaky giant monster wrought terror on the streets of New York in Cloverfield. It gave the found footage film a terrifying legitimacy that it has seldom been able to attain since.
Anya (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)This quickwitted vengeance demon would rip out the heart of a unfaithful lover while talking his ear off. Like many of the Buffyverse's best villains, she becomes an official member of the Scoobies, but Anya was at her most enjoyable when she was the parton saint of bloody revenge. Goddard penned one of her best episodes, Season 7's "Selfless."
The First Evil (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)By Season 7, Buffy had pretty much run out of supernatural baddies to face off against, so the big bad in the show's final season was The First Evil, an ancient being comprised of all the evil in the world.
Caleb (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)Both charming and devilish, Caleb added some corporeal might to the First Evil's campaign to end the world. Nathan Fillion, always the jag.
Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)Spike was a swaggering, punk rock, bad boy vampire that spent the early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a recurring antagonist. Even though Spike does become a mostly good guy in the end, the Spike/Drusilla tag team from Seasons 2 and 3 is still the most terrifying duo in television history.
Dana the Vampire Slayer (Angel)In a Goddard-penned episode of Angel, a newly powered vampire slayer kills several people at a hospital before escaping. Dana probably blurs the line between victim and villain, considering she was tortured as a child and is mentally unstable, but great villains usually do.
Ben Linus (Lost)The sly and manipulative Ben Linus served as the primary antagonist in Lost for several seasons. His unerring devotion to the Island drove him to commit many cold-blooded actions across the show's run, but the character redeems himself (somewhat) towards the end. Goddard wrote Ben's first flashback episode, "The Man Behind the Curtain."
The Smoke Monster (Lost)This enigmatic plume of deadly black smoke that served as a constant threat to many of the survivors of Oceanic 815. It was later revealed to be the mystical Man in Black, a force of evil on the island.
Merman (The Cabin in the Woods)While mermaids are usually elegant redheaded beauties that sing show tunes and befriend high-strung Jamaican crabs, Mermen are horrid, disfigured creatures of the deep that murder with reckless abandon.
Angry Molesting Tree (The Cabin in the Woods)Probably the first living thing in history to be both and endangered plant species and a registered sex offender. This homage to a creature in the Evil Dead series is both silly and disturbing.
Zombie Redneck Torture Family (The Cabin in the Woods)The primary monster of Cabin in the Woods before the film flips the script into an all out monster bash, these creatures are suitably terrifying. Regular zombies are bad enough, but add on top of that a layer of backwoods ignorance and you've got yourself one doozy of a monster.
Unicorn (The Cabin in the Woods)So the horn on a unicorn's head is used to impale innocents. Makes sense, really.
Those Guys with Doll Masks (The Cabin in the Woods)These doll-faced humanoid creatures that pop out of an elevator don't have any claws, fangs, or any of the other standard horror movie staples, but they are probably the scariest monsters in the film.
Murdering Clown (The Cabin in the Woods)Our debilitating fear of clowns and bright colors were vindicated by the stab happy circus performer in Cabin in the Woods.
The Doctors (The Cabin in the Woods)Feeding off the fear that medical doctors are really sadistic maniacs with bone saws and slightly cold hands, 'The Doctors' from The Cabin in the Woods are the reason some of us haven't had a checkup since 2012. I'd rather just let this broken bone just sort itself out thank you very much.
Hell Lord (The Cabin in the Woods)With half a dozen buzz saw blades sticking out of his head, the Hell Lord is some serious nightmare fuel.
Klu Klux Klan (The Cabin in the Woods)Fictional monsters sure are terrible but really, racism is the real evil facing the world today.
The Killer Robot (The Cabin in the Woods)We'd like to think that the reason the show Robot Wars was canceled was because this mechanized monster became sentient and killed its creators.
The Office Drones (The Cabin in the Woods)With all their claws, tendrils, and unicorn horns, the creatures featured in The Cabin In The Woods are all deathly frightening, but the true monsters of the film are definitely the coffee-swilling desk jockeys that subject the unsuspecting teens to the deadly horror movie ritual. I hope giving up their souls were worth the sweet 401k plan.
Sigourney Weaver (The Cabin in the Woods)Shudder...
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20th Century Fox via Everett Collection
In the era of the World Wide Web, the story for Home Alone would go something like this: young Kevin wakes up and realizes that his family is nowhere to be found. Wanting to make sure that they haven't disappeared, he grabs his iPad, checks Buzz's Twitter feed which says, "On the way to the airport. Can't wait to check out Paris babes!" Relieved, Kevin brings up FaceTime to contact his mother and let her know that he was left behind. She takes a cab back to the house, goes onto the airline's website to change their flight and the two of them fly out a short while later to enjoy Christmas. The end.
When British scientist Tim Berners-Lee drew up his proposal in 1989 for what would become the World Wide Web, he was just hoping to share information within the scientific community. Instead, 25 years later the Web has changed daily life for most people in ways that are too numerous to list. The rise of the Web also did something else that wasn't anticipated… it changed movies.
From a practical standpoint, the entertainment industry has taken full advantage of the Web. Every new movie release has a web presence for marketing purposes. Websites like Netflix and Amazon deliver streaming films. There are sites to tell you when movies are playing, that rate them, that show trailers and that sell movies. Thanks to Kickstarter, there are even websites that help finance productions.
What the Web has also done is changed the way that filmmakers have to tell their stories. Besides Home Alone, there are a variety of plot points that had to be abandoned once the Web became an omnipresent part of life. Sam's family in Sixteen Candles wouldn't have forgotten her birthday, because they all would've gotten Facebook reminders. Dr. Richard Kimble doesn’t have to go all over Chicago to find his wife's killer in The Fugitive; he just needs access to Google. Ferris Bueller would've been busted as soon as his parade antics went viral on YouTube. In Sleepless in Seattle, Jonah would've just brought up Annie's profile on the Baltimore Sun website and said "See, she's pretty!" Die Hard basically wouldn't have a plot left… same with My Cousin Vinny and numerous others.
Screenwriters and directors now have to account for the Web (and cell phones), when plotting out their stories. Want to update Romeo &amp; Juliet? Have fun trying to work around the leads not e-mailing, Skyping or texting. Want to remake The Usual Suspects? Better have an answer for why that picture of Keyser Soze isn't available on any law enforcement websites.
Anyone wishing to tell a story with farcical elements has to work harder than ever to create the ruse, because no part of it can hinge on information that is readily available on the Web. If the character could look it up on Wikipedia, it's kind of hard to explain why they wouldn't just do that.
While some have skirted the issue by finding the few corners of the world that technology hasn't reached — think Babel — a number of filmmakers have instead sought solace in the past. Whether it's Ben Affleck with Argo, David O. Russell with American Hustle, Quentin Tarantino with Django Unchained or J.J. Abrams with Super 8, big name directors are opting to tell stories from before the dawn of websites as a way around dealing with the issue. Of the nine Best Picture nominees this year, four were set before 1990… and two of the others took place in the middle of the ocean (Captain Phillips) and in space (Gravity).
Of course, one of the other nominees showed a different path that filmmakers can now explore to tell new and interesting stories. Spike Jonze's Her made technology a character all on its own. Instead of just altering the ways that filmmakers tell stories — and studios produce and market movies — maybe over the next 25 years of its existence the World Wide Web will become a movie star in its own right. Hey, it's not any more farfetched than the various John Hughes plot devices from the '80s that the Web has rendered obsolete.
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20th Century Fox
As always, the summer movie season is loaded with sequels. New editions of Transformers, The Expendables, Planet of the Apes and X-Men litter the release schedule. Even kid's movies (Rio 2) and horror (The Purge: Anarchy) are in on the act. It can start to feel like everything is part of a franchise or based on something that we've already seen… even something like Maleficent is based on the wicked queen from Sleeping Beauty.
While it might seem like there's nothing new on the horizon, that's not quite the case. Just as there is every summer there are films that aren't follow-ups or retreads. These summer time releases are the ones that we're most looking forward to.
The Fault in Our Stars (June 6)
Based on the best-selling novel by John Green, Fault stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as a pair of teenagers who meet at a cancer support group. She's terminally ill and he's lost a leg, but they bond over their shared passions and fall in love. The book has a devoted fan base that went nuts at the release of the first trailer. It's hard not to get swept up in their excitement over the love story.
Tammy (July 2)
We know that Melissa McCarthy hasn't quite equaled her breakthrough role in Bridesmaids, but this time the actress co-wrote the script with husband Ben Falcone, and he's directing. If it doesn't work this time, it's entirely on the star. McCarthy plays a woman who just lost her job and found her husband cheating, and decides to go on a road trip with her grandmother (Susan Sarandon). So, like Thelma &amp; Louise… only funnier.
A Million Ways to Die in the West (May 30)
Seth MacFarlane's Western comedy marks the Family Guy creator's first foray before the camera as a leading man. As he proved with Ted, MacFarlane's humor is tailored made for the R-rated big screen. He plays a scaredy-cat farmer who takes up with Charlize Theron's mysterious woman… who happens to be hiding from her gunfighter husband (Liam Neeson). As for the title, as the trailers have shown, MacFarlane had a lot of fun coming up with interesting ways to kill people in the Old West.
Jupiter Ascending (July 18)
The latest from the Wachowski siblings stars Mila Kunis as Jupiter, a young woman that was predicted to be great when she was born but is now a custodian. That is, until Channing Tatum shows up as an alien solider that's after her. We don’t pretend to know what any of that means, but we didn't understand The Matrix before that came out either.
Sex Tape (July 25)
Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz play a married couple that makes a video of their sexcapades that goes missing and they have to try to find it. All we really needed to know to be sold is that it features Diaz wearing roller skates in bed, and has Jack Black and Rob Corddry in supporting roles. Plus, there's a good chance that Segel will be naked, and that's worked out okay for him before.
Can a Song Save Your Life? (July 4)
Keira Knightley is a down-on-her-luck singer whose ex-boyfriend just got a big recording contract and who may have just been discovered by an even worse off record producer (Mark Ruffalo) in New York. Expect a lot of people singing in bars, but with Sexiest Man Alive Adam Levine among the supporting players it will at least be a really good looking music scene.
Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1)
Based on the Marvel comic books, it keeps within the same universe that The Avengers inhabit (two characters seen during the tags of earlier Marvel movies — Benicio Del Toro's The Collector and cosmic bad guy Thanos — make appearances), but it's got a much more loose-limbed feel to it with Chris Pratt playing the leader of the Guardians and Zoe Saldana as a green-skinned alien assassin.
Blended (May 23)
Amazingly, it's been 10 years since the last time that Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore were in a movie together. The duo play a pair of single parents who can't stand each other but — as luck would have it — end up sharing a suite at an African resort with all of the kids in tow. Sandler's never been a stickler for plots that make sense, but Barrymore has a tendency to bring out the best in the comedian.
See? Plenty of non-sequels to be excited about!
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Warner Bros.
It's remarkable how much Veronica Mars feels like coming home again. Ms. Mars has had nearly a decade off from her detective duties, but the character and the series at large saunters right back into form with such a confident swagger, it feels like she never really left at all.
The product of a now infamous Kickstarter campaign, Veronica Mars is the film sequel to the much beloved but scarcely watched CW series that followed the adventures of a teenage private eye. Mars solved mysteries surrounding the seedy denizens of the fictional Neptune California, a beach town where the rich socialites and working class heroes clash quite frequently and often violently. The series was a terrific mix of Nancy Drew and Raymond Chandler, give or take a Buffy, airing for three seasons before being canceled. But thanks to creator Rob Thomas' audacious Kickstarter and a brewing cult of fans, Veronica Mars has been given a second chance at life, a chance that precious few shows receive.
The film picks up with Veronica (Kristen Bell) knocking on 30's door and enjoying a comfortable life in New York City with her long time boyfriend Piz (Chris Lowell). Her youthful gumshoe years are well behind her, but her old life comes back into swing when former flame Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) is charged with murdering his starlet girlfriend. Veronica tells herself that she only wants to consult a friend, but Neptune's magnetic pull becomes too hard to resist.
The film is a ton of fun. It's still as whip smart as the series ever was, and the quips whiz by effortlessly and constantly... often right over the heads of those who aren't already baptized by the gospel of Veronica. The show quickly falls back into familiar rhythms, and the nine years away haven't dulled the character's verbal barbs. Prepare to be bathed in waves of wit. Even outside of the near-relentless banter, the show maintains a nice and heavy sense of tension when the mystery sets in, and things get serious. While the actual mystery itself is far from brilliant, it's still engaging enough to entertain. In any case, the main course here is the characters, and they are as stellar as ever. Keith Mars (the fantastic Enrico Colantoni) is still the easy frontrunner for dad of the millennium.
Warner Bros.
The most remarkable thing about the film is how much it feels like the Veronica Mars of old, and that's the best compliment we can pay it. The returning cast members slip into their old roles with so much ease, and the film never feels like it's straining to regain that old Neptune spark. It turns out that watching a near 30 Veronica is just as much fun as watching the sleuth in her teenage years. And the fact that the show's general formula doesn't feel out of place now that we're following a load of late 20-somethings instead of high schoolers probably says something about how smartly and strongly crafted the original show was in the first place.
Rob Thomas clearly isn't trying to broaden his formula to catch new fans, and it doesn't make sense that he'd do so anyway. This is clearly a film built from the ground up for Veronica Mars fans, as it should be. A hefty intro montage at the beginning tries its best to get newcomers caught up on the three seasons of the television show, but if you didn't spend at least a couple hours cruising along the seedy streets of Neptune all those years ago, some of the film's charm might be lost on you.
The Veronica Mars film, at its core, is basically a damned good two hour episode of the original series. Now, that's not exactly ambitious, but the fans that put down their hard earned money to fund the film weren't necessarily paying for ambition. What we have here is unquestionably and purely Veronica Mars. So self-assured and comfortable in it's own celluloid skin, it's a film that dutifully embraces everything that made that series so brilliant and fun in the first place. Welcome home, Veronica, it's been a while.
4/5
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DreamWorks
For the bulk of every Rocky and Bullwinkle episode, moose and squirrel would engage in high concept escapades that satirized geopolitics, contemporary cinema, and the very fabrics of the human condition. With all of that to work with, there's no excuse for why the pair and their Soviet nemeses haven't gotten a decent movie adaptation. But the ingenious Mr. Peabody and his faithful boy Sherman are another story, intercut between Rocky and Bullwinkle segments to teach kids brief history lessons and toss in a nearly lethal dose of puns. Their stories and relationship were much simpler, which means that bringing their shtick to the big screen would entail a lot more invention — always risky when you're dealing with precious material.
For the most part, Mr. Peabody &amp; Sherman handles the regeneration of its heroes aptly, allowing for emotionally substance in their unique father-son relationship and all the difficulties inherent therein. The story is no subtle metaphor for the difficulties surrounding gay adoption, with society decreeing that a dog, no matter how hyper-intelligent, cannot be a suitable father. The central plot has Peabody hosting a party for a disapproving child services agent and the parents of a young girl with whom 7-year-old Sherman had a schoolyard spat, all in order to prove himself a suitable dad. Of course, the WABAC comes into play when the tots take it for a spin, forcing Peabody to rush to their rescue.
Getting down to personals, we also see the left brain-heavy Peabody struggle with being father Sherman deserves. The bulk of the emotional marks are hit as we learn just how much Peabody cares for Sherman, and just how hard it has been to accept that his only family is growing up and changing.
DreamWorks
But more successful than the new is the film's handling of the old — the material that Peabody and Sherman purists will adore. They travel back in time via the WABAC Machine to Ancient Egypt, the Renaissance, and the Trojan War, and 18th Century France, explaining the cultural backdrop and historical significance of the settings and characters they happen upon, all with that irreverent (but no longer racist) flare that the old cartoons enjoyed. And oh... the puns.
Mr. Peabody &amp; Sherman is a f**king treasure trove of some of the most amazingly bad puns in recent cinema. This effort alone will leave you in awe.
The film does unravel in its final act, bringing the science-fiction of time travel a little too close to the forefront and dropping the ball on a good deal of its emotional groundwork. What seemed to be substantial building blocks do not pay off in the way we might, as scholars of animated family cinema, have anticipated, leaving the movie with an unfinished feeling.
But all in all, it's a bright, compassionate, reasonably educational, and occasionally funny if not altogether worthy tribute to an old favorite. And since we don't have our own WABAC machine to return to a time of regularly scheduled Peabody and Sherman cartoons, this will do okay for now.
If nothing else, it's worth your time for the puns.
3/5
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